Lullabies for Rebirth
by Delena Aneled Hupp
Summary: A lesson in perseverance: Kairi builds a list over her years away, her reasons for fighting and her reasons for caring.


_**Lullabies for Rebirth**_

_**By**_ Delena/Aneled Hupp

_**Rating**_ K/G

_**Genre**_ General

_**Legalities**_ All recognisable characters present in this derivative work are property of Square Enix and all that jazz.

_**Mission Summary**_ A lesson in perseverance: Kairi builds a list over her years away, her reasons for fighting and her reasons for caring.

_**Mission Statistic Warnings**_ None.

_**Mission Status Report **_One-shot, part of a series.

_**Pre-Mission Briefing **_Why is Fuu a part of all this? Why is Kairi being referred to as the Keyblade wielder? Well, think of this as a teaser of bigger things to come; this is a collaboration between two friends and myself; you can read a bit more about it on my bio page. Just be patient with us, I know some of you will enjoy what we have waiting, so for now, partake of snips of the girls' journey across worlds.

_**End briefing-Begin Document**_

At the start of their journey, once more in a state of melancholy, though not so extreme as it often was, Kairi was found by Selphie with her head cradled in her arms, resting at the Gummi ship's tiny table. The resident Ray of Sunshine had, at the time, been disheartened just the slightest at the sight of the Keyblade bearer, the hope of the worlds, moping yet again. Ever the optimist, Selphie had felt it to be her calling on this mission to bring her fearless leader back into healthy spirits.

A piece of paper flopped ever so gracelessly (with the aide of Selphie's hand for weight) with a pencil onto the table where the gloomy redhead was brooding.

"What's this?" Kairi inquired, to which Selphie's response was, "A paper and pencil!" and upon receiving a most unamused glare, the brunette grinned cheekily in response.

"You're still in the dumps, Princess," Selphie explained, "So I figured I'd help you find motivation.

"Bad things have happened, but you've been chosen… And we can't very well have the icon of light for the worlds be in a stormy mood, so I think you should get back on track. I want you to write at least seven reasons why saving the worlds is a must, why you shouldn't give up… Why you're fight and what you need to get back."

Kairi stared at Selphie, almost deadpan.

"And what if I don't want to?" she questioned, defiantly.

On cue, Selphie swooped in over the table, stopping mere centimetres from Kairi's face wearing a bold grin on her own face,

"You owe it to me, y'know, for saving your butt."

Kairi conceded; she hadn't actually intended on ignoring Selphie's suggestion anyway, but she felt more like this was her own idea now, rather than feeling that someone was treating her like a child and forcing her to write.

"_Reasons I shouldn't give up: Goals._

_Sora._

_Riku._

_Riku and Sora._

_Riku and Sora lost in Darkness._

_Riku and Sora potentially turning on us._

_Riku an-"_

"You're cheating!"

Kairi winced at the sound of Selphie's indignant squawk and glanced up with only a trace of guilt on her face.

"They're _my_ goals, I figured I could do what I wanted with them," the redheaded reasoned.

Selphie appeared only mildly deflated and just a little sad.

"You don't have any other reasons for accepting the Keyblade?"

"I didn't accept it, it forced itself on me, and no, I really can't think of anything else that motivates me more than finding Sora and Riku and saving them. Why are _you_ tagging along?"

Selphie couldn't mask the hurt that crossed her face at that moment,

"You think I'm just tagging along?"

"Selphie, no, I didn't mean… That's not what I meant," with that miserable apology, Kairi felt her frustration and anger wane. In spite of her better judgment (the redhead _had_ metaphorically bitten off her head mere seconds ago) Selphie seated herself immediately beside the Keyblade wielder and wrapped her in a reassuring embrace.

"I think we can do this, Princess," Selphie timidly began, "Riku and Sora aren't the only ones who need us… Everyone at home needs us; people we don't even know are depending on us. Please don't give up so easily."

Kairi chewed nervously at her bottom lip, staring thoughtfully at the table before them. Sighing, she lightly patted Selphie's head and muttered,

"I'm not giving up, I'm just trying to cope… I think you're better at it than me."

"You'll adjust soon enough, Princess, just so long as you try."

Kairi found herself smiling faintly in response to her travel companion's endless cheer,

"Thanks. And Selphie?"

"Yes?"

"Please stop calling me Princess."

"What would you have me call you, then? Kai?"

The Chosen girl restrained herself from pushing Selphie off the narrow bench in retaliation. From that moment on, though, Kairi had found herself feeling more empowered and far more hopeful about the outcome of this most unwanted trek.

-----------------------

Over the course of their three-year adventure, Kairi finds herself revisiting that list she started so very long ago. Her five original prompts remain, but she finds so much more is worth the effort and her list grows easily beyond seven reasons. She needs to protect Selphie, because without the brunette Kairi isn't really sure she would have ever actually found the heart to charge forward even when everything conceivable was forcing her to remain behind. She has Fuu to fight for as well; the taciturn blonde may be a force to be reckoned with, but Kairi knows that the stranger from Twilight Town is still a piece of a greater whole than must be preserved, so she fights to protect Fuu. In her travels, Kairi and her companions encounter a world being eaten from within, Hollow Bastion, and Kairi feels a connection to this place as strong as the one she feels for her home back at the Islands. She knows she must soldier on in order to protect this world as well, and what's more, she _wants_ to protect this world and the people on it.

Kairi matures with her list; she meets a myriad of people and… things? She helps those without courage find it, she faces herself, the shadows, a strange blonde in white; she travels to the end of existence, and in the end, her first goals are the last she reaches, but she reaches them all the same.

-----------------------

As she sits on the sandy shore of the play island, safe at home and with Riku on one side and Sora on the other, Kairi remembers that the list was Selphie's idea. The list that she still carries everywhere, crumpled and faded. As the incoming gentle waves slap at her bare feet, Kairi squeezes Sora's hand and then Riku's and reminds herself to thank Selphie first thing tomorrow for coercing her into starting that damned list.

_**Mission complete**_

_**Post-mission analysis**_ Strike your fancy? Stay tuned for more.

**End Transmission.**


End file.
